SIRE 2017 Convention Advisory Committee

SIRE Convention is privileged to have a cross section of the industry represented on the inaugural Advisory Committee. With key leaders drawn from the global robotics arena, each individual brings with them vast knowledge and experiences to the table. The key role of the committee is to provide clarity and direction in the curation of the convention programme.

Prof Ang Wei Tech

Rehabilitation Research Institute of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University

Prof Ang is an Associate Professor with the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering since Nov 2004. He received the Ph.D. degree in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, and the M.Eng. and B.Eng degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in 1999 and 1997 respectively. Dr Ang leads a multidisciplinary team focuses on robotic technology in biomedical applications. He is the PI of several projects funded by A*STAR SERC, A*STAR BMRC, NMRC, MOE, NTU & the French Embassy.

Nicholas Yeo

Technical Director of ARTC
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

Nicholas Yeo is currently the Technical Director of A*STAR’s Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC).

Nicholas leads a talented group of research and technology staffs towards developing and delivering next generation of advanced manufacturing solutions such as Robotics, Additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0 technologies. He plays an important role in driving technology and process innovations between global industry partners and the Singapore public R&D centre, as well as developing strategic relations with industry leaders in sectors that cut across sectors such as Aerospace, Machinery, Oil & Gas and FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods).

With over 17 years of experience in R&D and operational roles,Nicholas brings along an extensive portfolio of technical expertise from project management, technology exploration and innovation as well as multi-disciplinary technical functions. Before joining the ARTC, he has held various senior positions such as Global Account Manager at Flextronics and Programme Manager at Eastman Kodak and involve in developing a technology start up for LED headlamp applications.Nicholas graduated with a Bachelor degree (1st class) in Mechanical Engineering, and is a certified PMP and MSP practitioner and has an EMBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Rayner Ng

National Robotics Programme Office

Rayner is Director of the National Robotics Programme, a position he has held since January 2017. He was formerly Engineering Director, for Sirona, a German dental equipment maker. In that role he was responsible for expanding Sirona’s presence in the high growth Asia/Pacific markets and R&D operations in Foshan and Guangzhou. He was also the leader for Product Management and Leanmanufacturing operations

He formerly headed the electrical design team at Hill-Rom that set up their first Asian medical device R&D facility in Singapore that focused on applied R&D into electro-mechanical systems. He also set up Welch Allyn R&D centre in Singapore, its first in the Asia Pacific region to design and develop medical products for the emerging markets.

Rayner graduated with a Bachelor of Electronic and Communication Engineering (Honors) from the University of Sheffield, U.K., attained his Master of Technological Design (Rapid Product Development) from the National University of Singapore and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Master of Science (Biomedical Engineering) from Nanyang Technological University and Master of Business Administration from the California State University, Sacramento, USA.

Tan U Xuan

Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)

U-Xuan TAN received the B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2005 and 2010, respectively. From 2009 to 2011, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. From 2012-2014, he was a Lecturer at Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore. In 2014, he took up a research intensive role and is since an Assistant Professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore. He was awarded STUD Outstanding Education Award - Excellence in Teaching in 2015 and best student paper finalist for IEEE ROBIO 2006. His research interests include mechatronics and medical robotics.

Paul is the Vice President of Technology Development at ST Dynamics - a company in the ST Engineering Group and he also assumes the role of co-Director for the ST Engineering-NTU Robotics Corporate Lab.

He has been in the field of engineering for more than twenty years, including sectors such as aerospace, robotics, unmanned vehicles and intelligent systems and is actively involved in the management of advanced R&D in these fields within the company.

His current focus is in driving advanced robotics and autonomous systems in the airport and crisis response sectors and believes that there is much opportunity in applying the latest technologies to enhance the operations and safety in these areas.

Yau Wei Yun

Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR

Wei-Yun Yau received his BEng from the National University of Singapore (1992), MEng (1995) and PhD (1999) from Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Currently, he is the Department Head for Robotics at the Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR. He also serves as a member of the IAPR’s Technical Committee on Biometrics. He is the recipient of TEC Innovator Award 2002, Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors’ Award 2003 (Merit), IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards 2006 and Standards Council Distinguished Award 2007. His research interest includes intelligent robots, biometrics, active vision system, and human-robot interaction and has published widely, with 12 patents granted and over 150 publications. One of his papers received the Pattern Recognition Journal Honorable Mention 2010 and listed as top 25 most cited papers in Scopus as at April/May 2012.

Foo Khee Loon

ST Engineering

Foo Khee Loon is the General Manager of ST-Kinetics Robotics Group. He is an accomplished CIO and Senior Executive with over 15 years of experience in Information Technology (IT) project planning, operation, management and complex project implementation for the Ministry of Defense. Highly specialized in the field of Command and Control design, ecommerce, and Corporate Information Technology (CIT) development. An innovative systems and business development manager with proven track record of managing, nurturing and training a diverse project team, responsible for an annual budget of more than $600 million.

Prof Martial Hebert

CMU Robotics Institute

Martial Hebert is a Professor of Robotics Carnegie Mellon University and Director of the Robotics Institute, which he joined in 1984. His interest includes computer vision, especially recognition in images and video data, model building and object recognition from 3D data, and perception for autonomous robots. His group has developed approaches for object recognition and scene analysis in images, 3D point clouds, and video sequences, with application to ground and air robots. He has served on the editorial boards the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, the IEEE transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, and the International Journal of Computer Vision (for which he currently serves as Editor-in-Chief).

Sam Lee

Vietnam Automation Solution Services Association

A native Korean who stayed in Vietnam for more than 15 years, Sam Lee holds a bachelor degree in International Business and Engineering. He also served as Vice President in the VASSA, building opportunities and international relationships for the industrial segment in and out of Vietnam. Subsequently, he found Inteco and headed the automation consultation and industrial field in this region. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of automation in Vietnam, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Prior to that, he was the kick-starter for the brand Autonics in Vietnam. His particular interest is in new creations shaped through factory automation and how it will impact society and businesses.

Dr Ishkandar Bin Baharin

Vietnam Automation Solution Services Association

Dr Ishkandar Baharin, has had extensive experience in working in industry and academia in the field of robotics, automation and computer integrated manufacturing both locally and internationally. His industrial and corporate skills include international business start-Ups from Business Planning, Standard Operating Procedures and Operational Management for Cross-Border Operations. Product Branding and Go-To-Market Strategies and Plans for OIC Markets. Venture Capital and Financial Engineering for Technology Based Companies. Preparing Companies for Public Offers and Direct Investments and Corporate Restructuring of Technology based Companies for sustainability and growth. His technical skills in robotics include Intelligent Manufacturing and CIM for Electrical & Electronics Industries, Industrial Robotics and Automation for Manufacturing, Intelligent Systems and Artificial Intelligence (Hybrid Fuzzy-Neural Controls), Microprocessor Engineering and Real Time Systems, Mechatronics and Distributed Systems Engineering. He is currently active in professional organizations serving as President for Malaysia Robotics and Automation Society (MyRAS). He had previously served as Vice President for Malaysian Society for Engineering and Technology (MySET), Chairman for Malaysia Robotics and Automation Interest Group (myRAig), Executive Member of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society in Malaysia and Professor in Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysia France Institute where he is leading the Robotics Center of Excellence in the University.

Lee Eu Gin

Centre for Healthcare Assistive and Robotics Technology

Mr Lee Eu Gin is an Assistant Director at the Centre of Healthcare Assistive & Robotics Technology (CHART). CHART, which is sited at Changi General Hospital, provides a collaboration space and platform that enables healthcare professionals to work closely with industry, academia and research institutions to co-develop and testbed impactful healthcare solutions in assistive technology and robotics. The Centre is also a launch pad for the National Robotics Programme, a multi-agency initiative that coordinates and supports the end-to-end development of robotics technologies.

Kelvin Ong

Focustech Ventures

With over 15 years of experience in precision engineering & technology, Kelvin was the Executive Director of Focus-Tech Holding, main shareholder of Seksun Group, world’s leading HDD component maker. He was instrumental in driving their new product & business development efforts in China & SE Asia that culminated in its S$295M exit. Kelvin subsequently founded FocusTech Ventures, a Singapore government endorsed private investment firm & technology incubator, before going on to establish FTV Labs, an enterprise IoT solutions company aimed at modernizing old-line industries such as manufacturing, construction & logistics with design & technology. Kelvin is also the founding partner of TNB Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focused on opportunities around IoT, AI/ML, robotics & AR/VR. An active angel investor in more than 30 startups, his passion in connected hardware also led to the formation of OneMakers Group aimed at developing the regional maker ecosystem. Kelvin graduated from the National University of Singapore with an MBA in Finance & Strategy from the Nanyang Business School.